Solid Energy’s plans to rip thousands of tons of lignite out of the ground in Southland is plain stupid. The message on Solid Energy’s revamped website this morning is bang on.

Lignite mining, deep sea oil drilling and mining national parks are all indicators of a Government steering this country in entirely the wrong direction and of a fossil fuel lobby with too much influence.

The corporations most responsible for contributing to climate change emissions and profiting from those activities are actively campaigning to increase their access to international negotiations, while at the same time they are working to defeat progressive legislation on climate change and energy around the world.

The climate crisis is very real and it’s immediate. Just today we see reports that global warming has caused Arctic ice to decline at a pace and scale not seen in the last 1,450 years. The Arctic is a the canary in the coal mine and it's at death's door.

Next week a new round of climate negotiations begin in Durban. At this conference it is crucial that countries agree a fair, binding and ambitious deal for the planet - so we can take advantage of the small window of time we have left to turn around the climate change juggernaut. The anti lignite video is a timely reminder of where the change has to happen on the ground, back home, here, now.

People all over the world are waking up to the need for action and the need to phase out fossil fuels - it’s time Governments did too.

As Governments fail to bring corporate poluters into line more and more people will begin to take direct action.